Al Seckel - Visual Illusions

Visual Illusions

Seckel collects, researches, and experiments with visual and other types of sensory illusions. Up through 2005, Seckel was affiliated with California Institute of Technology vision scientist Shinsuke Shimojo and computational neuroscientist Christof Koch. Seckel has written a number of books on visual illusions and has given invited talks at many universities around the world, and at many prestigious conferences, including TED and the World Economic Forum, Davos.

His book, Masters of Deception: Escher, Dali, and the Artists of Optical Illusion (2004), collects the work of many prominent international visual illusion artists, including among others Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1527–1593), Salvador Dalí (1904–1989), M. C. Escher (1898–1972), and Rex Whistler (1905–1944). His book The Art of Optical Illusions placed first on the American Library Association's "Top 10 Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers" list for 2001. Some of his other books on optical illusions and perception, which focus more on the science that mediates illusions and perception, have been used in college courses on visual perception.

In 1994, Seckel designed and put up the first free interactive website on illusions and has developed visual illusion installation for museums around the world. Seckel has also written a series of optical illusion picture books for children including Ambiguous Illusions (2005), Action Optical Illusions (2005) and Stereo Optical Illusions (2006). Seckel wrote a monthly column on illusions for National Geographic Kids magazine.

In 2005, Seckel was one of the judges at the first "Best Visual Illusion of the Year" contest held in A Coruña, Spain at the European Conference on Visual Perception. In 2006 he was listed as one of the contest's sponsors.